1961 RCA
Victor release the compact single 33 - a 7inch playing at 33 1/3 - it didn't last long

1961 EMI
sign The Beatles

1962Twist Dance Fever originated
by Hank Ballard hits the UK

1963 Andrew Loog Oldham manages the Rolling Stones
and they sign a recording contract with Decca

1964Record sales
in the UK up 60% on 1960

1964 Pirate radio stations start broadcasting among them
Radio Caroline

1966 Brian Wilson produces Pet Sounds

1966 "River Deep Mountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner and produced
by Phil Spector with his trademark "Wall of Sound" released

1967 Sergeant
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band released with cover designed by Peter Blake

1967Monterey
Pop Festival takes place with performers including Jimi Hendrix, The Who & Otis Redding who was killed that December

1967Birth
of Radio 1 using a Pirate Radio format as the offshore broadcasters are forced to withdraw

1967 Height
of the Flower Power psychedelic scene particularly in San Francisco paving the way for the Acid Rock scene

1969 500,000
people flock to a soggy field in upstate New York for the Woodstock Festival

1960-1969 Golden Age of Vinyl

By 1960 the
golden age of vinyl had arrived. The shellac 78 was, by now, virtually defunct and the LP and single formats, supported by
affordable turntables, amplifiers and loudspeakers were working well in the marketplace. The consolidation of dependable sound
reproduction in the home and a burgeoning youth market meant that record presses were working overtime to keep up with demand.
However the classical market, having led the way in the new binaural stereo market, had begun to decline. It was time for
the youth market to take advantage of the technological advances and move them a few steps forward.

As with today’s
recording industry with its manufactured boy bands, no one in 1962 saw the youth market as anything but an ephemeral, transient
phenomena that would eventually disappear. Elvis was in the army, Buddy Holly was dead and the charts seemed doomed to be
filled with pale copyists and banal substitutes such as Adam Faith, Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson. Everyone now knows the story
of how an employee of Decca records rejected a young four-piece with the advice that guitar bands were "finished". Unfortunately
EMI records had a better ear and on signing The Beatles (for it was they) and pairing them with producer George Martin they
prepared the way for the next giant leap in the history of vinyl.

The Small Faces: "Itchycoo
Park"; The Beach Boys: "God Only Knows"; The Supremes: "Reflections"; The Animals: "We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place"; The
Foundations: "Baby Now That I've Found You"; Dusty Springfield "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me"

Meanwhile in America the importance of the producer
as shaper of the sounds that were possible to cram onto a vinyl disc was also being proven. On the East Coast there was Phil
Spector’s "wall of sound" productions. Utilising hundreds of musicians, often doubled up on various instruments, the
"Tycoon Of Teen" had the US singles charts in his grip. On the West Coast Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was cashing in on
the teenage crazes, such as cars and surfing, as a way to craft what he would come to call "teenage symphonies to God". All
through the sixties these rivals would compete in pushing the sonic envelope to create the most contemporary sounds.

The
songcraft of Lennon and McCartney immediately demanded a more considered approach as to how it would eventually sound on the
record players of the masses. Martin was a consummate craftsman who had enough cross-genre experience to provide this technical
wizardry. In the space of three years The Beatles conquered the 7 inch singles market and then, by paying as much attention
to every track on their long players gave birth to a new market for albums amongst a younger audience. By 1967 Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band had set a whole new standard in the public's audio expectations. A hidden track was even placed on
the runout groove at the end of the second side, as if to say that the way in which we listened to music had been changed
forever.

A whole book could (and has) been written concerning
the new techniques developed during these years at EMI’s Abbey Road studios. Multi-track recording on magnetic tape
advanced from two to four and then to eight and sixteen tracks by the end of the decade. The stereo mixing effects this afforded
gave the sound of vinyl a whole new dimension only hinted at by classical recordings, where a guitar, cymbal or voice could
be placed anywhere in the stereo "picture". Effects such as panning (where sound sweeps from one speaker to the other), ADT
phasing (a rushing effect caused by two tapes of the same sound running slightly out of synch with each other) and the use
of synthesizers to create new sonic landscapes, all originated in these heady days and were rapidly adopted as the norm by
studios around the world. On top of all this, the emergence of solid state electronics to replace valve technology was leading
to any technology being drastically reduced in size and cost.

It was not only the sound of the vinyl that was irrevocably
altered. The whole package was altering to enhance the notion of the 12 inch album as a coherent concept to be taken as a
whole and not just as a collection of tracks gathered together for ease. Again Sgt. Pepper led the way with its gatefold sleeve
(a device only previously available to classical albums), lyric sheet and playful cardboard inserts. From this point on the
design departments of all major companies expanded and the sleeves in the racks of the stores became more and more colourful
and elaborate. Even labels at the centre of the discs took on more inventive hues and logos. The "swinging sixties" with all
its visual, musical and cultural upheavals had changed the significance of vinyl from that as either the domain of the snobbish
classical audiophile or the throwaway single. By the end of the decade the world was rushing to buy the cheaper stereo systems
that allowed them to immerse themselves in a whole new audio experience.